A Tale of Two Blonds
by Valakun
Summary: Mistakes and chance happenings are just as involved in love as feelings and emotions and they often make for more interesting courtships. See what happens when chance brings together Konoha's two loud mouth blonds. NaruIno


I've been wanting to write a short Naru/Ino fic for a while now and I had both the time, energy, and inspiration to begin work on it. There will only be three or four short chapters. I don't intend to abandon my other fics. This is just a short little work meant to get my mind off my current stories so I can refresh myself. I don't own Naruto, everybody knows that, but I gotta mention it. Enjoy.

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The blond shouldn't have been there. He knew it. Everyone else knew it. The problem was he didn't have any choice in the matter. Well to be technical he did have a choice. He could have refused. He could have walked away. Smacked his Sensei upside the head and stomped off to get some ramen or get some practical training in. But no, the old lech had promised him a new technique if he managed to stay where he was for a minimum of three hours without being detected.

So here he was. Sitting atop a rock in the middle of the most popular women's hot spring in Konoha trying his best not to stare too hard at the multitude of, at least for the moment, drop dead gorgeous ladies that were populating the pool. Normally just showing his face around the bath district guaranteed a one way ticket via Enraged Women's Fist o' Doom Express; his face having been linked to that of the legendary pervert himself. The blond didn't know how the old pervert did it but he always managed to sneak his way in just fine. It was the "caught deep inside forbidden territory because you let your guard slip" part that the old man had a problem with.

And so his student had been forced to take on the roll of experimental jutsu tester/decoy. This was, of course, under the guise of training. And the blond had to admit it certainly did make him stretch his abilities and chakra control to new levels. He just wished the pervert could have found a different method of training for the same results.

He was currently using three different jutsu at the same time. The first layer was a basic invisibility jutsu. A thin screen of chakra diverted and partially deflected light away from the body creating a null space that, under normal circumstances, would have been noticed for the way the background seemed to shift and contort through the chakra screen. That was where the second layer came in.

A semi powerful notice-me-not style jutsu helped divert eyes away from the strange light contortion that the first jutsu produced. It was a frequently used technique in crowd situations where anonymity was needed. The fact that the bath produced abundant amounts of steam helped even more by lowering the visibility to only a dozen or so feet in any direction.

If, by chance, someone managed to get past the invisibility and the notice-me-not all they would see would be a young blond girl wrapped in a towel perched atop the rock, apparently taking a breather from the hot water of the baths. This last bit was something he was already very good at. His Sexy No Jutsu was a specialty of his and he'd had lots and lots of practice of late.

He sighed morosely. It was the easiest way to get the old pervert to do what he wanted him to. Flash him a hot body and he'd cave like a house of cards.

He squinted through the mist and caught a glimpse of the clock on the far wall. Fifteen minutes left. He sighed quietly and shook a mental fist at the old man. He'd long since given up cursing him. After running through his rather large cursing vocabulary three times he'd felt it had lost its effectiveness.

He'd run out of mental activities an hour ago. There were only so many times you could run through jutsu hand sign lists and battle tactics before the exercise became pointless. So he'd taken to listening in to some of the conversations that seeped out of the mists around him; categorizing them and adding his own mental voice to the conversations. He'd worked out distances and angles for some of the more distance voices. He'd tried to see if he could recognize any of the voices and match names and faces to them.

He rolled his eyes as the nearest group of women continued their discussion about great shopping trips and fantastic purchases. They'd been at it for thirty-five minutes by his count and showed no sign of stopping. He glanced at the clock again. Could time move any slower?

Was there anything else he could do to pass his last few minutes? A splash off to his left alerted him that someone had just entered the baths. He quickly tuned out the shopping group and focused his attention on figuring out a distance for this new bather. At least it was something to do.

His sharp ears and excellently trained sixth senses pinpointed her position in a matter of moments. By his estimates she was seventeen feet away and moving in his direction. She was going too fast for her to be walking. The sounds matched that of a swimmer, a good one at that. At the rate she was going he would gain sight of her in half a minute.

He picked apart all this data and began to build a profile for the still invisible women. By the beat and length of time between strokes she was somewhat lanky. Probably taller then him by a hair or two. Her breathing was even so she was obviously in shape. He nodded in approval. He'd always liked fit girls.

A silhouette emerged from the mists. Long hair spilled out behind her moving form. He was admiring how the silky strands seemed to slither and twist behind her when he caught the hint of a chakra signature. His heart beat quickened. This one had a strong chakra signature. She was ninja.

He shifted his feet, suddenly nervous. He hadn't felt any ninja near by before now. In that he was incredibly lucky. He hadn't wanted to test his luck and skill in hiding against one. Kunoichi were often better at defeating genjutsu then male ninja. He prayed to whatever god's that were listening that she wouldn't notice him.

But no one up stairs was paying him any mind. Well, maybe that wasn't all true. The god of happenstance and bad luck was probably enjoying himself quite a bit, for out of the mist came not only a kunoichi, but one he knew personally. The blond began to sweat bullets as the long haired platinum blond girl swam into view. There was no mistaking that hair. It was none other then Yamanaka Ino.

She moved with a liquid grace that made even the water she swam through look awkward. Her eyes were closed; she was obviously enjoying the water. The fact that she was headed unerringly towards his rock meant that she probably knew where it was by heart or that she had pinned its location through her senses. He cursed silently. He would have to pick a kunoichi's favorite rock to perch on wouldn't he?

She turned and floated face up the last few feet to the rock, giving him an unrestricted view of her rather generous chest. She wasn't using a towel today, how quaint. He gulped and looked away quickly. The purple uniform she so often wore didn't do her justice he thought.

He heard her sigh as she settled up against the rock. He mentally rolled his eyes. He was now stuck here until she decided to leave. He couldn't risk attempting a get away with her here. He had no doubt she'd catch him. All he could do was sit as still as possible and hope that she tired of water soon.

The minutes passed with glacial slowness. He tried to occupy himself with conversations again but his attention always found its way back to Ino. He'd often find his eyes sliding back to the top of her head. There had always been something he'd liked about her hair. Maybe it was the fact that she was the only other blond he knew. Maybe it was just the way it fell across her shoulders. He didn't know for sure. All he knew was that his eyes defied every order he gave them and continued to return to her beautiful form and its platinum blond hair.

The time for his departure came and went. Soon he was counting the elapsed extra minutes in tens, not ones. Jiriaya was probably wondering what had happened to keep his pupil so long. He certainly wouldn't come to get him that was for sure. He may have been a pervert but he wasn't stupid. Not by far. A summons maybe? Would a toad be able to slip in unnoticed to get him? It might be able to get by the other women but Ino would notice. Nothing he could think of would work for him to get in touch with his sensei. He cursed the old man anew for his stupid training ideas.

His mental tirade was abruptly cut off by a well aimed pebble. The tiny rock bounced off his spiky head and fell with a clack and a plop, off the rock and into the water. He marveled at the resourcefulness of his master. Such a simple method and yet so damaging to his cause. The little pebble had hit the water only a few inches from Ino's right shoulder.

He froze, ice suddenly running through his veins, as Ino jerked at the sound and feel of the pebble hitting the water so close by. She glanced at the spot where it had hit then looked up and over her shoulder at the rock. Her eyes swept over his position, then did it again. Suddenly her eyes widened. She slowly slid her eyes over the rock a third time, this time as if she was deliberately looking for something.

He felt the ice settle in his belly as her eyes locked directly on his position. She pushed away from the rock and floated off until she was about five feet away, all the while studying his position. Suddenly her head jerked back a bit. He knew she'd broken through the notice-me-not technique. He could see her eyes flitting over his still indistinct form as if trying to solve a puzzle. After a couple seconds her eyes took on hard gleam. She'd gotten past the invisibility too.

>>>> 

Ino glared at the figure that had been revealed atop the rock. How the blond girl had managed to stay hidden so long was a mystery to her. The jutsu she'd used hadn't been very powerful but had apparently been enough to fool the typical bather and an unwitting ninja or two. Ino cursed her lack of awareness and doubled the intensity of her glare.

The other blond girl looked like she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She wouldn't meet the glare Ino was sending her, instead choosing to look anywhere but directly at her.

Something tickled the back of Ino's mind. The girl looked familiar for some reason but she couldn't place her. Ino knew every girl in her age bracket in the city, ninja and civilian alike, and this girl wasn't one of them.

"Who the hell are you?" she asked in a steel hard voice the brooked no argument or questioning. The girl sweat dropped and managed to look even more nervous but did meet Ino's gaze for a few precious moments. Just long enough for recognition to click. The blond hair, the deep sky blue eyes, the faint whisker marks on the cheeks.

"Oh."

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So much for the first installment. This will be short so don't get your hopes up. Thx for reading.


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